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<h2>Tests &amp; Quizzes: Overview</h2>
 

<h3>What it does</h3>

<p>This tool allows you to create online assessments (i.e., tests,
quizzes, and surveys) for delivery via a web interface to your
students or other groups.  It was designed primarily to administer tests,
but you may also create assessments to gather survey information or
informal course feedback.</p>

<p>You can include multiple question types in an assessment, including
ones that require your students to upload files. You then can choose
how to organize, deliver, and collect that assessment. You can choose
to randomize questions so that they appear in a different order for
each student. Questions can be organized into question pools, allowing
you to reuse questions. You can also import previously created tests
and surveys.</p>

<p>Most grading is done automatically, and grades can be posted
automatically to an online gradebook. </p>

<p>By configuring an assessment's settings, you can control a wide
range of conditions for taking an assessment. For example, to specify
locations for taking an assessment, you can indicate a range of IP
addresses. Via the settings, you can determine when an
assessment will become available, set time limits, determine how many
times a student can take an assessment, and indicate whether or not
late submissions will be allowed.</p>

<h3>Key concepts</h3>

<p><strong>Creating a test:</strong> When you click <strong><code>Create</code></strong> on
the <code>Assessments</code> page, you are naming and setting up the
test, and entering the assessment editor. From here, you can go on to
create the test content, including questions and the parts (i.e.,
sections) that will contain them.</p>

<p><strong>Question editor:</strong> Within the question editor, you
not only create the question and its possible answers, but you can also
assign the question to a part or a question pool, add feedback and
metadata, and choose whether or not to require a rationale.</p>

<p><strong>Parts:</strong> Every assessment must contain at least one
part (i.e., section). Each new assessment will include an
automatically created part called "Default". If you do not change the
"Default" part's name, its heading (i.e., gray divider) will not
appear on your assessment. Any questions or images you place in this
part <strong>will</strong> appear; only the heading will be hidden.</p>

<p><strong>Settings:</strong> From the <code>Assessments</code> page,
you can view and modify the settings for all your assessments. Within
the settings, you can create an introduction for your assessment,
determine its delivery dates and to whom it will be released, set
security levels, specify time limits and the number of submissions
allowed, add graphics, feedback, and metadata, and determine how the
assessment will be graded.</p>

<p><strong>Question Pools:</strong> You can organize questions into
question pools so that you can reuse them in other assessments. You
can subdivide question pools into subpools to organize questions by
subject matter, section number, question type, or any other criteria
desired. For example, an instructor can create a question pool called
"Biology 105", and then create subpools called "Basic concepts", "Cell
biology", and "Genetics".</p>

<h3>Things to consider</h3>

<ul><li>It can take a few tries for students to feel comfortable taking
online tests. Consider setting up a practice run in a lab environment.

<br /><br />
</li><li>Assume all the issues concerning take-home exams also apply to
online tests.

<br /><br />
</li><li>Consider linking a test or survey to a Schedule item.

<br /><br />
</li><li>The feedback settings for your test can be important. The tool can
grade only true/false, multiple choice, matching, numeric response, and
fill-in-the-blank question types; it can't grade short answer/essay or
file upload questions. If your assessment includes questions that
you'll need to grade by hand, you might prefer that your students not
see the results of their automatically graded questions until you have
reviewed the whole test.

 
<p><strong>Note:</strong> You should not use the Immediate Feedback
setting in Tests &amp;
Quizzes when assessing learning, as it may provide
information students can use to correct their answers before
submitting a test.</p>

</li><li>If the application times out while a student is working on your
assessment, there is a chance the student's work will be lost. The
time out settings for the application are determined by the system
administrators.





</li></ul>

<h3>Help documentation</h3>



<p>For help documentation about the Tests
&amp; Quizzes tool, see <a href="content.hlp?docId=arfu">Tests &amp; Quizzes</a>.</p>

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